失敗是成功之母
简 失败是成功之母 · 繁 失敗是成功之母Meanings
- Failure is the mother of success.
Characters in this entry
- 失
- shī · lose; make mistake, neglect
- 敗
- Look up this written character
- 是
- shì · indeed, yes, right; to be; demonstrative pronoun, this, that
- 成
- chéng · completed, finished, fixed
- 功
- gōng · achievement, merit, good result
- 之
- zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
- 母
- mǔ · mother; female elders; female
- 败
- bài · be defeated, decline, fail
Explore the spelling
Mandarin tones
1–4–4–2–1–1–3 · shi1 bai4 shi4 cheng2 gong1 zhi1 mu3
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
Connected dictionary
Read this spelling in Classical texts
Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.
失敗是成功之母 · find source passages ↗ · 失败是成功之母 · find source passages ↗
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
sat1 baai6 si6 sing4 gung1 zi1 mou5
Cantonese word readings for 失敗是成功之母. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.
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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section
Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.
proverb
- Failure is the mother of success.
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
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